HERE'S GORE VERSUS BUSH AGAIN -- IT'S THE ENVIRONMENT, STUPID!

The part that follows about Al Gore was printed a few days ago as a moment of zen.

But what I've found since I wrote that piece is a web site you can go to and figure out what your carbon footprint is. It's www.carbonfootprint.com. Quint is workign on ours. He says we should be fairly low because our electricity utility is nuclear powered so we don't have to worry about carbon stuff. But then, look out if there's a big boom. You'll find us headin' for the hills!
 

But back to Mr. Greenjeans Gore's campaign to get us all to reduce our carbon footprint. Weren't we going to turn down the thermostats and click off lights in empty rooms?

So how did Mr. Greenjeans Gore manage to use even more electricity after his big film An Inconvenient Truth was released? Yep, according to the Tennessee Center for Policy Research, the energy consumption to the Gore's 20 room mansion increased from 16,200 kWh a month in 2005 to 18,400 kWh a month in 2006.

But wait! Just since August 2006, the Gores have burned through 22,619 kWh a month. According to the Department of Energy, the average American household uses 10,656 kWh a year!

Well you just know that somebody somewhere counts these things. If America is good for anything, we're a nation of counters. We count everything. In Mr. Greenjeans' case, somebody counted the dollars he spent on his seemingly overabundant consumption of -- dare I say, carbon emitters. Isn't he the one who's going around screaming at everybody to cut back?

We did just that. We only used 282 kWh last month. That's according to our last electric bill. For the whole entire year, we averaged only 12.9 kWh a day. That includes really hot steamy sultry days in the globally warm summertime when the air conditioner is running.

Top that, Mr. Greenjeans.

Rob Sullivan, a freelance writer out of Los Angeles, has discovered that the Bush Texas White House is a model of environmental green. It's kept warm in the winter and cool in the summer by using a system of pipes some 300 feet down in the ground. The temperature down there is a constant 67 degrees, Sullivan says.

But then, there's the problem of bringing the water up to the surface. That's what the geothermal heat pumps are for. These pumps circulate the water throughout the house.

The pumps only use 25% of the electricity that ordinarily would be used in a comparable 4,000 square foot home.

Okay, so it's not the same size as the Gore homestead back in Tennessee. Guess the Gores like livin' large in their little 20,000 square foot hut.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch. There's a 25,000 gallon underground cistern where rainwater is collected from roof runoffs, wastewater from sinks, toilets and showers. All this water, naturally, gets purified before it's used to irrigate the landscaping.

Bush's house was designed by David Heymann. He's the associate dean of the University of Texas architecture department. He points to a grove of oak trees on the west side of the house. This protects the house from the heat of the late afternoon sun.

Nice touch for President Bush's ecologically correct home. Bet you'll see nary a mention of the Bush home anywhere in the popular press, though.

We don't have managed news in this country, do we? Just freedom of speech?

##

HOW THE MOVIES MADE OUT THIS WEEKEND

When we were catching snippits of the Oscars it occurred to us that we have only seen one movie that was in contention for any award and that was The Departed.

It fell to 32nd place this week from 29th place last weekend. But then, it's made a total of $131,805,297 so it made its $90 million budget.

Ghost Rider stayed in first place, even though it fell 55.8% in revenue. It's going to take a while to recupe its $110 million budget.

In second place, The Number 23, raised $14,602,867. It has a $30 million budget. This is the debut weekend for Jim Carrey's move away from comedy.

In third place, Bridge to Terabithia, brings in $14,157,645. The budget isn't listed for this movie.

Reno 911!: Miami came in fourth place, with $10,273,477 for its debut weekend. Its budget was $10 so I'm guessing we'll see more of these zany sheriff's police and their antics. They're already profitable.

Can you believe Night at the Museum is still around? It came in 12th place. Okay, so it only picked up $2,170,661. So far this movie has collected $241,640,806 in ticket sales. Don't know if it's made budget yet, since the budget isn't listed.

Hannibal Rising fell to 13th place with sales of only $1,76,165. This is the third week for Hannibal. Guess people are getting tired of the cannibal hannibal.

Apocalypto fell to 56th place. Last week it was in 47th. It has made its budget of $40 million since it's enjoyed gross sales of $50,829,674 but it's not going to make a half a billion dollars for Mr. Mel.

##

THEY WALK AMONG US -- from my cousin, Mark Stubbe

Uh, that would be Sgt. Mark Stubbe, your honorableness -- laughing is very healthy -- thanks for sharing

I walked into a Blimpie's with a buy-one-get-one-free coupon for a
>sandwich.
>I handed it to the girl and she looked over at a little chalkboard that
>said
>"buy one-get one free." "They're already buy-one-get-one-free," she said,
>so I guess they're both free."
>
>
>
>She handed me my free sandwiches and I w alked out the door.
>
>They walk among us and many work retail.
>
>-----------------------------------
>
>A friend of mine bought a new fridge for his house. To get rid of his old
>fridge, he put it in his front yard and hung a sign on it saying:"Free to
>good home. You want it, you take it." For three days the fridge sat there
>without even one person looking twice at it. My friend decided that people
>were too untrusting of this deal. It looked too good to be true, so he
>changed the sign to read: "Fridge for sale $50" The next day someone stole
>it.
>
>
>They walk among us.
>
>-----------------------------------
>
>One day I was walking down the beach with some friends when one of them
>shouted, "Look at that dead bird!" Someone looked up at the sky and said,
>"Where?"
>
>They Walk among us!
>
> ====================
>
> While looking at a house, my brother asked the real estate agent which
>direction was north because, he explained, he didn't want the sun waking
>him
>up every morning. She asked, "Does the sun rise in the North?"
>
>
>When my brother explained that the sun rises in the east, and has for
>sometime, she shook her head and said, "Oh, I don't keep up with that
>stuff.
>
>They Walk Among Us!!
>
> ====================
>
>I used to work in technical support for a 24/7 call center. One day I got a
>call from an individual who asked what hours the call center was open. I
>told him, "The number you dialed is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week."
>He
>responded, "Is that Eastern or Pacific time?" Wanting to end the call
>quickly, I said, "Uh, Pacific."
>
>
>They Walk Among Us!
>
> ====================
>
>My colleague and I were eating o ur lunch in our cafeteria, when we
>overheard
>one of the administrative assistants talking about the sunburn she got on
>her weekend drive to the shore. She drove down in a convertible, but
>"didn't
>think she'd get sunburned because the car was moving."
>
>
>They Walk Among Us!
>
> ====================
>
>My sister has a lifesaving tool in her car designed to cut through a seat
>belt if she gets trapped. She keeps it in the trunk.
>
>They Walk Among Us!
>
> ====================
>
>My friends and I were on a beer run and noticed that the cases were
>discounted 10%. Since it was a big party, we bought 2 cases. The cashier
>multiplied 2 times 10% and gave us a 20% discount.
>
>
>They Walk Among Us!
>
> ====================
>
>I was hanging out with a friend when we saw a woman with a nose ring
>attached to an earring by a chain. My friend said, "Wouldn't the chain rip
>out every time she turned her head?" I explained that a person's nose and
>ear remain the same distance apart no matter which way the head is turned.
>
>
>They Walk Among Us!
> ====================
>
>I couldn't find my luggage at the airport baggage area, so I went to the
>lost luggage office and told the woman there that my bags never showed up.
>She smiled and told me not to worry because she was a trained professional
>and I was in good hands. "Now," she asked me, "has your plane arrived yet?"
>
> They Walk Among Us!
>
> ====================
>
>While working at a pizza parlor I observed a man ordering a small pizza to
>go. He appeared to be alone and the cook asked him if he would like it cut
>into 4 pieces or 6. He thought about it for some time before responding.
>Just cut it into 4 pieces; I don't think I'm hungry enough to eat 6
>pieces."
>
>Yep, They Walk Among Us!
>
> ====================
>
>
> They walk among us, AND they reproduce!

IT'S TUESDAY -- THAT MEANS THE DOMED ONES ARE WORKING AGAIN, RIGHT?

The House won't convene until 2 pm. That's when Tuesday starts for the Legislatured Ones. The Senate isn't doing much better -- the Senate convened on Monday at 2 pm and adjourned at 5:12 -- took no votes.

It appears that the Most Powerful Woman in America can't quite get the troops to show up for work. Remember Pelosi? She was the one who promised to "clean house."

Well, it doesn't matter which party is in power. The stench of slovenliness wafts all the way to us folks out here in the heartland -- about halfway across the country. Don't you politicos get it? A workweek is forty hours a week! It starts at 8 or 9 am and goes on for eight hours, straight through, with a lunch break somewhere in there.

You don't get to count after-hours cocktail parties and elaborate dinners with your lobbyists. Or off to the royalty treatment of ski weekends or down in the Bahamas for beach barbecues.

Pelosi promised to deliver the most ethical congress in history. Remember that?

Hey, Aunt Nancy, it's not going to happen if you can't even get your minions to show up for a real workweek.

It's not going to happen unless both sides of the aisle engage in real, legitimate debates about the issues that concern Americans. That would be us out here in the heartland.

Yoohoo -- remember us?

We're the voters. So far you're all looking like the money-grabbing ilk you ran against when you promised to clean the place up.

That means dusting out the corners too. And the dark places where scoundrels hide. You know the ones -- they just want the job. They don't want to work.

So all your Domed Ones get the bewildered looks off your faces and get to work. You are being watched like you have never been watched before.

##

35th IDITAROD STEPS OFF ON MARCH 3, 2007 FROM ANCHORAGE, ALASKA

It’s a 1,150 mile course that takes from 10 to 17 days. It starts starts March 3, 2007 from Anchorage, Alaska and goes to Nome. There are two Iditarod courses – a north course that’s used in even numbered years, and a southern course in odd years.To watch a spectacular video about the race and the dogs and the mushers, treat yourself by going to: www.iditarod.com – then click of "View All Videos."

This year there are six veterans who have won the Iditarod. Three of them have won four times and Rick Swenson has won five times.

These winners, and the years they’ve won include:

Martin Buser 1992, 1994, 1997, 2002

Jeff King 1993, 1996, 1998, 2006

Doug Swingley 1995, 1999, 2000, 2001

Rich Swenson 1977, 1979, 1981, 1982, 1991

Other winners (it’s a short list):

Mitch Seavey 2004

Robert Serlie 200, 2005

Second place winners:

Ramy Brooks 2003

Linwood Fiedler 2001

Paul Gebhardt 2000

Ed Item 2005

DeeDee Jonrowe 1998

Sonny Lindner 1981

There are 83 mushers this year – 27 of them are rookies.

Twelve of the mushers who are back this year have finished in either first or second place. For a rookie, that must be more than just a bit intimidating.

And yet they press on. The inner competitiveness to wear the belt buckle that has been awarded to 551 people in the Iditarod’s 35 year history.

More people have climbed Mt. Everest.

The Iditarod is a race. It’s a celebration of heroism.

Most of all, it’s a memorial to those first people who blazed the Iditarod Trail to get medicine to children – it’s a memorial to those who did something for others, not themselves. It was far from a sporting event in 1925 when the Iditarod Trail was traveled to bring Diphtheria vaccine to Nome where an epidemic had broken out. It was run to save the lives of children.

The record run is held by Martin Busher who, in 2002, finished the race in 8 days, 22 hours, 46 minutes and 2 seconds.

The Red Lantern is awarded the last place finisher. The record for last place is held by John Schultz, who in 1973, took 32 days, 15 hours, 9 minutes, and one second.

No, it’s nothing like a NASCAR race that run on an oval track for only 500 miles.

WOW! CLINTON OUT-EARNS THE WORLD IN SPEAKER FEES

He's earned $40 million for his speeces just in the last six years, according to his wife's United States Senate Financial Disclosure Report. The report is dated May 12, 2006 and signed by the Hillaryness.

He gets paid for his globetrotting to England, Ireland, New Zealand, and Australia.

Pretty amazing, don't you think, for a guy who owed about $12 million in legal bills following the Whitewater and the Lewinsky investigations.

Remember how he wanted to get some money from Congress to help pay his legal debts? (He was turned down. Don't panic.)

Writers for the Washington Post -- John Solomon and Matthew Mosk -- has discovered that many of his six-figure speeches have been made to companies where the employees and political action committess are big donors to wife Hillary's run for the senate in New York.

Like, for isntance, Goldman Sachs giving The Bill $650,000 for four speeches. Goldman Sachs employees and PAC have donated $270,000 to Hillary since 2000.

And that's just one big company. The super rich donate to the super rich.

But then, I've heard rumors that it takes about $500 million to have a successful presidential campaign.

And since all the candidates have started earlier than usual, will they be spending more money? I'll just betcha Billy Boy can figure out a way to help his wife out.
 
Just please don't make me have to listen to her. I just cannot tolerate that screechiness to her voice. But then, that's what my remote is for. She could just go the way of Oscar.

In fact, all the political candidates end up going the way of Oscar.

I just do not believe anything in their ads. Never have. Click click and over to the History Channel, or Food Network, or PBS or something else interesting.

It's a long, long list. To read the entire five page article, go to the Washington Post. The article, "For Clinton, New Wealth in Speeches," is dated February 23, 2007.

##

AT LAST -- SOMETHING I CAN AGREE WITH EDWARDS ABOUT

He said it's too early for the candidates to start bickering. After all, the 2008 election is months and months and months away.

In an article written for The Hill, author Jeremy Jacobs says that Edwards was talking about the Clinton camp versus the Obama camp and the recent million dollar campaign donation tree that Obama started shaking on a recent trip to California.

Relax, Hillary, there ought to be plenty of money to go around -- including a bucket of money leaves for you too. After all, Californians just love to finance liberal politicians.

Besides, the Hollywood glitterati have never been known for putting all their eggs in one basket. So just in case Obama runs out of gas in the next few months, they'd want all their money bases covered. You're safe.

Edwards says that he thinks America wants "something positive, they want honest, they want decent."

Gee, I'm looking at the field of candidates. I'm not seeing anyone I recognize.

##

UH OH -- IRAQI PRESIDENT SICK -- IN HOSPITAL IN JORDAN

Now what's this all about?

An Associated Press story written by Jamal Halaby says that Iraqi Prsident Jalal Talabani is in a hospital in Amman, Jordan. He's very tired and has a lung infection.

I'm not surprised what with all that black smoke from car bombs blowing up all over Baghdad. That can't be good for the Clean Air Act that Iraq hasn't passed yet.

Those suicide bombers would get a ticket if they tried anything like that over here.

Could it possibly be Talabani's heart, instead?

Halaby got a quote from Talabani's doctor. In one paragraph, the doctor denied heart problems no less than four times. Dr. Yedkar Hikmat said, "Not true. The president's case doesn't involve any heart problems. He did not suffer any heart attack. His heart is 100 percent good."

Doesn't that sound like a heart attack to you?

It doesn't matter why he's in the hospital. Exhaustion. Lung infection. Heart. Whatever. My prayer is for a full recovery.

Okay. So here's what I learned from Halaby's article.

1.) Talabani has a history of fainting when he gets tired.

2.) His political party is called the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. (I did not know that Talabani was Kurd.)

3.) He was a guerrilla leader against Saddam Hussein's regime.

4.) Oh, and his son also denies that Talabani had a stroke. Or a heart attack.

5.) Talabani walked off the plane under his own power when he landed in Jordan.

source: www.breitbart.com article by Jamal Halaby for Associated Press

##

REAL LIFE BEGINS AT CONCEPTION -- IS THE PENDULUM SWINGING BACK?

Consider this: In the state of Alabama, State Senator Hank Erwin is planning to introduce a constitutional amendment that would define life as beginning at conception.

Erwin joins Rep. Gerald Allen's bill that would ban abortions in Alabama, unless the pregnancy would endanger the life of the mother. Or cause her serious harm. Or in cases of rape or incest.

Consider this: Rep. Patricia Todd disagrees with the proposed amendments. She says she resents people using women's reproductive rights as a political issue.

Todd says that the Erwin and Allen have included their measures in their campaign agendas. So far, though, they haven't actually introduced the bills they are proposing.

The bills are just out there in the campaign rhetoric.

Consider this: The Associated Press conducted a survey in Alabama about this very issue. Some 62% of the representatives agreed. And 58% of the senators shared the opinion that life as begins at conception. (The Decatur [AL] Daily News, Bob Johnson, Associated Press writer)

Consider this: And I don't have the source in front of me but I remember reading an article within the past couple of weeks about some legislation that would require death certificates be filled out for aborted babies.

And finally: More than 47,000,000 abortions have been granted since Roe v. Wade in 1973.

WHO WILL DECIDE LITTLE BABY SMITH'S DADDY?

Little Baby Smith was born in the Bahamas.

Does that automatically make her a citizen down there? It would be the case if her parents were foreigners and she had been born on US soil.

There's a new judge in the paternity case in Ft. Lauderdale -- Hizzoner Larence Korda.

Korda says he doesn't think he has jurisdiction. I'll just bet he's right.

But the US probably have treaties and arrangements with the countries who control those islands through the balmy waters of the Caribbean. That usually works to arrive at peaceful negotiations.

But when things get contentious -- like in adversarial disputes -- then the spirit of the law goes flying out the window and the letter of the law goes hiding in caves where literal lawyers work their brains to the bone.

Smith's legal disputes are going to be media fodder for quite some time.

After the paternity matter is resolved, then there will be that small matter of settling her will. That is, if you could ever call $494 million a small matter.

But what if there were no money to be had? What if this child were an orphan without hoped-for financial resources. Then who would come forward to claim her?

I know. How about Mr. and Mrs. Smith!

Kind of poetic, don't you think. The globe trotting adopterators. Even the last name is right.

##

DID YOU HAVE ANY IDEA THAT SO MUCH PAC MONEY WAS FLOATING AROUND?

For instance, the US Telecom Association reported spending $3,100,000 in the last half of 2006. That's down from $15,280,000 that was spend in the first six months of 2006.

AT&T Services Inc. (and affiliates) spent $13,595,451 in the last six months of 2006. AT&T spent  $5,515,269, BellSouth $3,294,777, and Cingular Wireless $4,740,000 in the first half of 2006.

AARP spent $11,040,000 in the last half of 2006, down from $12,120,000 in the first half.

American Hospital Assn. spend $8,280,000 in the last half of 2006, up from $6,780,000 spent in the first half.

Pfizer spent $7,720,000 in the last half of 2006, up from $4,500,000 in the first six months.

Boeing Company spent $5,120,000 in the last half of 2006, up from $4 million spent in the first half.

Business Roundtable spent $5,320,000 in the second half of 2006, up from $3,500,000 in the first half.

National Assn. of Manufacturers spent $3,640,000 in the last six months of 2006, down from $9,600,000 spent in the first half.

and Chevron spent $2,980,000 in the last half of 2006, down from $4,500,000 spent in the first half of 2006.

That's only a small list of PACs reporting so far.

source: www.politicalmoneyline.com

##

ACT BLUE PAC DONATES TO PRESIDENTIAL HOPEFULS EDWARDS AND RICHARDSON

The policital action committee just donated $345,178 to John Edwards for President, and also $139,921 to Bill Richardson's exploratory committee for president.

Act Blue describes itself as a PAC that allows individuals and groups to channel their progressive dollars to candidates and movements of their choosing. It is an online clearinghouse for Democratic action.

So far, 8,241 donors have raised $900,616.85 for John Edwards --

and 1,115 donors have raised $286,291.92 for Bill Richardson --

and 176 donors have raised $16,885.56 for Barack Obama's presidential draft fund --

and 117 donors have raised $10,154.85 for Bill Richardson's presidential draft fund --

and 105 donors have raised $2,735.87 to Al Gore's presidential draft fund.

source: www.actblue.com

##

EX-GOVERNOR VILSACK ABANDONS BID FOR PRESIDENT

Other Democrat candidates are better known and better funded, so says Iowa's former governor. So he's pulling out, according to an Associated Press report.

He hasn't made a formal statement yet, so this is a leaky leaky from people inside his campaign who talk when promised anonymity.

So we'll just have to wait and see what the day brings.

##

GUESS WHICH REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES WON'T PROMISE TO CUT TAXES?

Since 1988 every Republican candidate for president has signed a pledge to cut taxes.

Except this time.

Guess who?

None other than McCain and Giuliani. The other Republican candidates say they're willing to say it in writing -- no tax increases if elected president.

But more than that -- the pledge that all the Republican presidential candidates are asked to make goes one step further -- embrace tax cuts!

I have no doubt that we'll hear more about this as we go along.

McCain's office says that he has long since opposed tax increases and his record speaks for itself.  And he supports making Bush's tax cuts permanent. [So just sign the pledge, John.]

And Giuliana? He's said all along that Bush's tax cuts should be made permanent. Otherwise, they'll expire in 2010. [Ditto to you, Rudy.]

The pledge came into being in 1986 and was originally circulated by teh Americans for Tax Reform. Since that time it has been embraced by every presidential candidate and become an integral part of campaign agendas.

So far, it has been signed by Romney, Brownback, Hunter and Gilmore III.

In addition to McCain and Guiliani, Hagel and Huckabee have so far declined to sign the pledge.

They're all expected to come on board though. Probably by the end of the summer.

source: Donald Lambro's article in The Washington Times

##

DO LAWMAKERS REALLY REALLY THINK THAT CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS ARE MEANT TO PAY THEIR RENT?

Just because it's Texas does not mean it's okay to supersize fleecing campaign contributors.

In fact, it's illegal to use campaign funds in Texas to buy real estate or otherwise find ways to enrich themselves. Some lawmakers, however, have found teensy tiny little loopholes that allow them to do just that.

They pay rent to their spouses for second homes in Austin, and at the same time, collect $139 a day for living expenses when they're on duty in the state capital.

So the taxpayers pay their expense accounts (which includes rent) and the campaign contributors pay the mortgage or lease payments for their homes in the capital.

"All perfectly legal," say the lawmakers.

Lawmakers outlawed the purchase of real estate with campaign funds in the early 1990s. Then they authorized taxpayer-paid "per diem" payments for lodging and meals for when the state legislature is in session.

I'm guessing that the lawmaker actually has to be in Austin in order to claim the per diem, but knowing politicians, they'll find a way around that little requirement too.

Just so you know, folks.

The presidential campaigns are revving up to a full roar and they're all going to be coming at us with their poor little hands out. Before you hand over thousands of dollars to your favorite candidate, at least make sure it's actually going to be spent on campaign expenses, not their own personal political action committee, or home away from home, or luxury cars because they wouldn't be caught dead in a plain old car like the rest of us drive. And they'd die of embarrassment if they had to buy their clothes off the rack like us regulars who have probably never touched the fabric of an honest-to-goodness designer dress.

Honesty and integrity? That's just for us plain old poor folks. Elected public servants build in exemptions to laws that let them squeeze through loopholes that skirt the spirit of the laws.

source: article by Jay Root in Star-Telegram-Austin - www.freerepublic.com

##

HAVE THE RUSSIANS BECOME THE "RENT-A-SATELLITE LAUNCHER" FOR THE WORLD?

Sometime later this year, Russia is going to launch Iran's first two satellites. They're supposedly spy satellites according to an article in SPACEDAILY.

I was amazed when I read an article at www.spacedaily.com about Russia's defense minister giving permission to launch Iran's two intelligence-gathering satellites.

Not only that, but Russia plans to launch six other satellites from countries that include China, Britain, Norway, Germany, Japan and the European Space Agency.

The Iranian satellites are planned launch between April and June.

Russia has the big Kosmos-3M rockets that can put the satellites up there in geo-stationary orbit.

Iran says it needs to develop a telecommunications infrastructure for handling data, audio and video signals. That satellite won't be ready for about two years or so.

I'm just wondering whether this all has come about because the Iranians kind of fell into arrears in their payments to the Russians for construction of the Bushehr power station. Russia says it may even delay delivering nuclean fuel for the reaction if Iran doesn't clear up its payment problems.

Is it possible they're trading favors?

##

56% OF AMERICANS: STAND BEHIND THE PRESIDENT

It's a new poll -- was taken nationwide between February 5th and 7th.

The poll questioned a cross-section of 800 registered, bi-partisan voters.

The margin of error is 3.5%.

The poll was conducted by Public Opinion Strategies out of Alexandria, Va., and commissioned by The Moriah Group, a Chattanooga-based communications and PR firm.

The findings were published today on www.drudgereport.com.
 
53% of the people questioned said that Democrats are going too far, too fast in pressing the President to withdraw troops from Iraq.

57% said: I support finishing the job in Iraq, that is, keeping the troops there until the Iraqi government can maintain control and provide security and the Iraqi war is a key part of the global was on terrorism.

60% believe that Iraq will never become a stable democracy, but they disagree that victory in Iraq is no longer possible.

53% say it's still possible to win in Iraq.

74% also disagree with this idea: I don't really care what happensin Iraq after the U.S. leaves, I just want the troops brought home.

59% believe that it will hurt American prestige more to pull out of Iraq immediately than it would to stay there for the long term.

The poll clearly shows that the American people just might have some different ideas from their elected leaders in Washington.

Are you surprised?

##

TROOP STRENGTH IN IRAQ AT FEBRUARY 21, 2007

According to Brookings Institution and www.globalsecurity.org and media reports followed by http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk the following is a listing, by country, of troop strength in Iraq:

US -- 132,000
UK -- 7,100
South Korea -- 3,200
Poland -- 900
Georgia -- 800-850
Australia -- 900
Romania -- 600 - 865
Denmark -- 460
El Salvador -- 380
Bulgaria -- 150

I added up 146,805 military personnel.

##

A GATHERING OF EAGLES CARAVAN TO WASHINGTON, D.C. FROM 3/8-17 --- www.janereinheimer.com

The theme is: These Colors Don't Run

It all started when word got out that Cindy Sheehan, Jane Fonda and Ramsey Clark were going to lead a huge anti-war protest in Washington, D.C. -- disgracing the war memorials as they marched toward the Pentagon.

Along the way, a patriot named Melanie Morgan (www.melaniemorganrocks.com) got on board with a campaign rally of her own which she calls "Move America Forward." Morgan is author of a book called American Mourning. She is also a talk show host on KSFO in San Francisco.

Melanie is hoping that all the people who are able and who can participate will join her on St. Patrick's Day

Move America Forward will be a national caravan from California all the way to our nation's capital. Along the way, there will be rallies for fellow patriots and flags donated. These donated flags will be placed around war memorials in a sea of red, white and blue.

The Jane Fondas and the Cindy Sheehans and any other protestors will meet patriots from around the country -- Gold Star Mothers who have lost someone they love, Blue Star Mothers who have someone serving now, and veterans of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom.

After the rally is completed, then the flags that have been donated in the patriotic rallies across the country will be sent to Iraq and Afghanistan with a note that explains this national effort.

Melanie Morgan says, "Desecrating war memorials is treasonous. Spitting on soldiers is for demons and snakes. Troops stand in harm's way for the protection of civilians. Patriots will always stand in support of their troops."

Go to www.moveamericaforward to see the caravan route. It starts with a rally in San Francisco at 8:45 a.m. on March 8th. From there, the caravan will head south, then turn east in southern Caifornia.

On Friday, March 16th, the set up for "Flag City" in Washington, D.C. on the Capitol Mall during the day, followed by a pro-troop vigil at Walter Reed Medical Center.

On March 17th, the patriotic/pro-troop rally with Move America Forward, Gathering of Eagles, Free Republic, Rolling Thunder, Vets for Victory and others will take place at the Vietname Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., from 11 am to 5 pm.

"We're going to protect our Wall," said Bob Penn, a Marine Corps veteran of the Vietnam War. "It's that simple." His group, Operation Rolling Thunder, is helping get the necessary permits from the National Park Service and they're spreading the word by e-mail and word of mouth.

Truth is, they aren't getting much play on ABC, CBS, NBC, and CNN. Morgan was a guest on Fox News Channel's Hannity & Colmes though. 

Gee, do you think this has anything to do with Fox News Channel's continued occupancy of the pinnacle of viewership in America? Are all the other news channels just part of the Great American Disconnect?

Go to www.gatheringofeagles.org and www.rollingthunder.org and www.defendourfreedom.com (this group will be filming and photographing the entire event).

So let's see -- our web site got 7,429 hits in January 2007 and we're over 6,000 so far this month. I'm guessing, from all your e-mails that you're Patriots like we are. It's time to rally 'round the flag folks.

It's time to honor all our military personnel and tell them we're rock solid behind them. It's time to reassert the hallowed sites that remember our fallen heroes!

##

THE PLIGHT OF THE HOMELESS OUGHT TO IMPROVE

The Associated Press reports that the new federal budget is showing an increase in money awarded to homeless shelters and programs nationwide.

The total budget award is $1.4 billion.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development oversees grants to more than 5,300 programs across the country.

It isn't just about pulling people off the streets and getting them into shelters where they will be safer. Nope. The programs include transitional housing and job training as well.

That's better than reading headlines about the hooligans running around the big urban areas knocking off homeless people for what they call "sport."

Shame on them!

##

ANOTHER REASON WHY I LOVE AMERICA: FREEDOM! WOMEN IN MANY PLACES ARE IN GRAVE DANGER WHEN THEY EXPRESS THEMSELVES -- FEMALE PAKISTANI MINISTER KILLED FOR REFUSING TO WEAR VEIL

Zilla Huma Usman, the minister for social welfare in the Punjab province, was shot by an Islamic extremist for refusing to wear the veil.

The assailant, Mohammad Sarwar, said Usman was dressed inappropriately and that women should not be involved in politics.

He said he would kill again if he were released. He said he had no regrets; he just obeyed Allah's commandment which says Islam does not allow women to hold positions of leadership. He said that he will kill all women who do not follow the right path.

As Usman stepped from her car, she was greeted by an audience throwing rose petals when Sarwar pulled out a pistol and shot her at close range, hitting her in the head.

The incident happened about 120 miles southeast of Islamabad where her office is based.

source: www.freerepublic.com
##

HEY, MR. EDWARDS, LEAVE ISRAEL OUT OF IT

Edwards must be out there in Hollywoodland looking for places to hang out where he can get his name mentioned in the press. And, along with Hillary and Obama, trying to shake the money trees.

Sure enough, Peter Bart, the editor-in-chief of Variety since 1989, gave up this quote from Edwards' campaign: ...Perhaps the greatest short-term threat to world peace, Edwards remarked, was the possibility that Israel would bomb Iran's nuclear facilities. As a chill descended on the gathering, the Edwards event was brought to a polite close.

Well, I guess.

Hey, John, did you forget where you were?

That's okay. Streisand says she's still going to donate $2,300 to your campaign.

And to Obama's.

And to Hillary's.

Can't play favorites, you know. One of you might just win.

But I'll betcha don't get invited to walk the red carpet on Oscar night with Obama. He's starting to emerge as someone who doesn't share the spotlight all that much. After all, he spearheaded the fight against asbestos, although to my knowledge, he hasn't claimed to co-invented the internet with Mr. G.

##

PAC MONEY -- NOT EXACTLY AN OLD DEAD HORSE

Remember Brent Wilkes? Ever wonder just exactly lobbying money is spent on?

Wilkes' indictment says lobbying activities included cash, checks, meals, limousine service, corporate jet travel, lodging, furnishing, boats and marine equipment, prostitution services [????], vacations and entertainment.

Eating out locations in Washington, D.C. listed the Capital Grille, The Palm, Ozio's, P.F. Chang's, Mr. K's, Serbian Crown Restaurant, and the Confucius Cafe. The indictment says other activities were in California, Hawaii, and Florida.

Brent Wilkes raised at least $100,000 for the Bush-Cheney campaign in 2004.

When Wilkes filed his Federal Election Commission stuff, he says he and his wife conated $139,806 to politicians since 2001. That didn't include the $100,000 he raised for the Bush-Cheney campaign.

Oh man. Campaign finance records show that Wilkes gave more than $840,000 in contributions to 32 House members or candidates. He flew Republican lawmakers around on his private jet.

Wilkes also let former Representative Randy "Duke" Cunningham use a 14.5 foot, 170 horsepower fiberglass boat several years ago when it was docked close to Cunningham's yacht in Washington, D.C.

The G-men have their eyes on Wilkes. He's now under indictment.

So is his buddy, Dusty Foggo, Executive Director of the CIA.  Foggo's indictment gives details of how he used his position involving vacations, trips, promises of employment, classified contracts and providing shell companies [probably to receive assets].

So while Congress is trying to figure out new disclosure requirements for lobbyists, the tallies are starting to come in.

The average, according to PoliticalMoneyLine, is $211 million a month.

The final total for lobbying in the first months of 2006 comes to $1,263,099,500! That was lobbying expenses for the Executive Branch and for Congress. 

Reports for the second half of 2006 are not due until mid-February.

source: www.politicalmoneyline.com

##

VILSACK IS NO GEORGE WASHINGTON EITHER

I just love all these truth in groveling receipts. Especially since they're reported at www.politicalmoneyline.com.
 
For instance, the former governator of Iowa -- Mr. Tom Vilsack -- recently filed all those required disclosure statements. It was for all of 2006 and January of 2007. He is definitely up to date in my book.

He got $185,000 in salary as governor of Iowa. Hey, that's more than the senators and legislators in Washington, D.C. Did you know that? Just remember that little tidbit next time you get the idea of people in Iowa are a bunch of corn pones. They're paying some pretty heavy bread for their big wigs.

It's not entirely clear but that $185,000 might also include some salary money from the Vilsack Foundation and some executor's fees.

He also got a $100,000 distribution from the Jessie Bell Schley estate.

And stocks. He's got lots of stocks in Ebay, Harley Davidson, Starbucks. Anheuser Busch, Diaego PLC, PepsiCo, Cadbury Schweppes, Chevron, Hershey Company, Microsoft, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, GlaxoSmithKline, Conagra, and Home Depot. He says he owns between $1,000 and $15,000 in each of those stocks.

And there's a consulting agreement with MidAmerican Energy.

And he's a visiting professor at Drake University.

Does this mean he won't be needing any federal money from taxpayers to fund his presidential hop, skip and a jump? I certainly hope so. He seems rich enough.

##

REMEMBERING GEORGE WASHINGTON -- BIRTHDAY GREETINGS

Back in the olden tyme days, it was called the divine right of kings. Or queens.

That turned out not to be a good idea. All those pearls and emeralds and rubies and gold got to be too blingey. So bling bling, in fact, that the poor commoners were blinded every time the kings and queens rode their steeds through the streets.

Sometimes, if it was one of those fancy dress balls, the royals would ride in their gold plated carriages.

And then about 400 years ago, settlers came over here and founded the Jamestown Colony.

Next thing you know, they wanted independence from the blingmobiles.

Then the war started. A wonderful man by the name of George Washington pushed his poor, threadbare, hungry troops all the way to victory. Everybody was so grateful that they wanted to call him King George when the battle for independence was finally won.

"No, no, no," said Mr. George. "We must not have a monarchy here in the colonies."

He must not have said much about sharing his wealth. It helped a real whole lot that he married the richest woman in his state. Makes for a better tasting porridge.

##

WHERE'D McCAIN GO AND HOW MUCH MONEY DO THESE POLITICOS KEEP?

Or, better yet, where was he on Saturday last?

Apparently he was running around cornfields in Iowa, campaigning to his little heart's content.

That's gonna cost him, big time, as the campaigns run along and hopefully build in steam.

Actually I think McCain is about ready to run out of gas. Frankly, by the time all of the candidates get down to the last 8 or 9 months before the presidential election, we're all going to be pretty sick of their endless droning on and on and on about the same old song.
 
Hillary now is yammering about taking the Confederate Flag down in South Carolina. She says it's time the people in South Carolina come under the blanket of Old Glory and be at one with their fellow Americans.

I'm paraphrasing her.

The candidates don't like President Bush. They don't like the job he's doing. And each and every one of them think they can do the job better.

That's going to get pretty old. Maybe even rancid and stinky.

So why are all these candidates running in the first place? Some of them must surely know that they don't have a prayer of winning.

But they do get to parK a lot of that campaign money they raise. It collects interest. Then they set up a PAC and somehow swing some cash off the top into their own little political action committees.

Doesn't matter how many votes they get. There's money at stake here. If you're a greedy politician, that's just as good as votes. Maybe better.

They all say what we need in this country is campaign reform. Well, they're the ones in charge of making those rules. How about it?

Maybe campaigning is like moonlighting after all. Problem is, the candidates need to remember to report for work for their day job, don't you think?

##

HERE'S YOUR BOX OFFICE REPORT

#1 -- Nicholas Cage finally gets a hit! Ghost Rider comes in at a whopping $45 million.

#2 -- Bridge to Tarabithia is a magical, fantasy movie at $22.6 milliong.

#3 -- Norbit -- is Eddie Murphy's not-so-blockbuster take at $16.8 million.

You can go to www.boxofficemojo to get a full list of the weekend movies.

##
 

HONDA RECALL!

Millions of Honda owners -- millions -- are being recalled.

Problems with odometer.

That's just the headline and it's all I know. But for those of you who do not read the news, and you own a Honda, you ought to be getting a recall notice.

##

MAKE THOSE TELEMARKETERS GO AWAY

You can call 1-888-382-1222 to put your telephone on the Do Not Call List.

But what I like to do is go the web site www.donotcall.gov. You can list up to three telephone numbers, I believe.

So I put the office number, cell phone number and fax number in.

And then -- this is important -- you will get an e-mail asking you to confirm. It's not a big deal -- just have to click on a link that's provided. It's kind of like, "Are you the person who has the authority to make this request?"

Just clicking on the link tells them yes.

There are currently about 140 million people who have registered with the Do Not Call List. That number could be much, much bigger if people confirmed the e-mail. So if you don't confirm by e-mail that you get, you won't be registered. It's a two-part process.

The problem is everytime you fill out a charge application, that particular merchant is going to be able to call you.

I have even heard that if you respond to a call-in vote that TV stations or radio stations like to use, any advertiser that puts ads on that station will be able to contact you. I haven't been able to verify this, however.

Guess what? TV and radio stations won't deny or confirm this.

When I register my phones, I get a promise that the request is good until 2011. The phones do quiet down pretty quick. And it stays like that for about three or four months, then the telemarketing noise starts up again.

Some merchants are worse than others. But hey, it only takes about 5 minutes to re-do the do-not-call request. I'll do it every month if I have to.

AND SEND THE UNSOLICITED CREDIT CARD APPLICATIONS AWAY TOO

If you want to stop all those unsolicited credit card applications, you can call 1-888-5-OPTOUT.

It's my understanding that there is a central clearing house that sends out all the "preapproved" credit applications that bug you. So what I do is send all the applications back in the mail. First I write "VOID" in big letters and "REMOVE ME FROM MAILING LIST" -- then I stuff the application back in the postage paid envelope that's provided with the application and mail it back to them. That way, the clearing house pays twice for the postage -- once to get the unwanted application to me, and again for the prepaid postage back to them.

Whatever you do, don't just throw the application away in the trash. Unless you shred it. Thieves go through garbage and they just love to get all those applications. And being the slimy little scumball thieves that they are, they wouldn't hesitate to tell Visa that you've moved and ask that a new credit card be sent to a new address that they provide.

Above all, protect your identity and your good credit.

##

CONGRESS TAKES WEEK OFF FOR PRESIDENTS DAY

Remember all those campaign promises about being more connected -- more responsive -- more something or other to the American voter/taxpayer? It sure didn't last long. It doesn't seem like they've worked a full week yet.

And they can't count when they're out on the campaign trail. That's politicking, not legislating.

The Senate calendar says it will convene at 2 pm on February 26 to begin the period of morning business.

The House is set to convene at 4 pm on Tuesday, February 20, 2007, although the calendar that's published says the congresspersons are doing work in their districts from 2/19 to 2/23.

So if you have anything you want to discuss with your favorite legislator, call them in their district offices. They're supposed to be there working for you, the taxpayer.

##

SENATE VOTE FAILS TO REBUKE PRESIDENT BUSH

They claimed it was a victory before it was not a victory.

The Democrats needed 60 votes; they only got 54. Motion for the non-binding resolution that was supposed to mean something. What, I don't know. Maybe spit in the president's eye? Maybe rebuke him? Maybe tell him he's not doing a good job?

Well, Congress isn't doing so hot in the polls either. Neither the president nor congress are convincing to even half the voters in this country.

I, for one, hope all these service men and women come back home and run for office -- and win. There are a lot of politicians sitting up there on Capitol Hill who are due for a big dose of what the American voters really want.

First thing we need to do is send all the lobbyists packing off to someplace where their influence peddling/meddling phone calls wouldn't be answered.

And the Political Action Committees can go out the door with them.

I know. Someone will tell me I don't know how things work. To that, I say, "Oh but I do."

Good legislation ought to be founded on good principles. Not funded on principal.

##

THE SENATE HAS BEEN SO BUSY, IT MAY HAVE TO WORK THIS SATURDAY

And owing for all the time that some have taken off for presidential wannabee campaigning and various other personal duties and tasks, this will not be an overtime day.

This scheduling of the Iraq vote on Saturday is how Reid got his middle name changed to "Mr. Mud." He will now, and in the future, be known as Mr. Harry "Mud" Reid.

How dare he schedule a vote day on Saturday! There is so much good campaigning/trolling to be had in New Hampshire. I mean, after all, the primaries are just a little over a year away.

Now let's see -- part of the dilemma is that the vote is so close on this Iraq thing. Why, some of the Democrats seem to be leaning just a tad toward the right. What if we lose this thing by only one vote. If that happens and the AWOL senator just happens to be out on the old campaign trail, it just wouldn't look right in all those future campaign ads that the other side will produce.

So Mr. Mud's attitude seems to be -- just reschedule if you have to.

But wait. Remember when Mr. Reid went down to Peru and couldn't make it to former President Ford's funeral because it was just too too difficult to rearrange his calendar? Oh, that's different.

The serious weekend campaign schedule has Clinton in New Hampshire, Biden in Iowa, Dodd in South Carolina, Obama in South Carolina and Virginia, Brownback in Florida, and McCain in Iowa.

I sure hope those guys have better luck getting in and out of airports than Quint and I do. I'm just curious -- do they have to go through all the security checks that the rest of us have to?

So what did the illustrious senators do today that couldn't wait. Stuff that just had to be taken care of instead of voting on the Iraq thing?

Well, they reauthorized and amended the National Geologic Mapping Act of 1992. [That couldn't wait a day or two.]

They authorized the Secretary of the Interior to designate the President William Jefferson Clinton Birthplace Home in Hope, Arkansas, as a National Historic Site and unit of the Naitonal Park System. [Well, of course! They haven't done this yet?]

They decided to establish the Fort Stanton Snowy River Cave National Conservation Area. [It's too late. The movie makers already trashed the place.]

They decided to rename the Snake River Birds of Prey National Conservation Area in the State of Idaho as the Morley Nelson Snake River Birds of Prey National Conservation Area in honor of the late Morley Nelson, an international authority on birds of prey, who was instrumental in the establishment of this National Conservation Area. [I personally think they ought to have removed the word "Snake" from the title. You'll scare those poor birds to death.]

They decided to designate the Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail. [I guess if the global warming initiative doesn't really catch on, they want to make it look like they're right on top of things. This way, theyll be ready for a little ice age.]

They repealed certain sections of the Act of May 26, 1936, pertaining to the Virgin Islands. [That certainly couldn't wait until next week.]

They recognized and celebrated the 50th anniversary of Alaska being named the 49th State of the Union. [This couldn't wait either. Who knows how many parties and celebrations would be held up if this hadn't gotten off the docket for a vote this very day.]

They recognized the African American spiritual as a national treasure. [This actually should have been referred to some oversight committee. After all, shouldn't this have been included in the Civil Rights Act of 1964? Why did they wait until 2007 to do this?]

And they did many other little things that did not particularly capture my imagination. Like appointing federal judges. I've never heard of any of those people, although I'm sure they're nice enough.

source: www.thehill.com and www.senate.gov

##

WHAT DOES A $50,000 INCREASE IN DUES COVER EXACTLY?

Gasp! Under ordinary circumstances and with ordinary, walking-around type folks, demanding that kind of increase for dues to anything would just about suck the oxygen right out of a room.

But wait! This was the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC, or dare I say the DC3).The newly imposed dues increase is to help protect the new Democratic majority.

According to an article written by Aaron Blake and Jonathan E. Kaplan in The Hill this morning, that would be $50,000 for each lawmaker.

I'm guessing that it probably is limited to the Democrats. I'll just betcha the Republicans have their own kind of dues system figured out.

The DC3 also wants their own politicians to have fund-raisers in their own districts, or in Washington, to raise about $200,000 each.

So right away, Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif) and former DC3 Chairman Patrick Kennedy ((D-R.I.) got out their checkbooks and started writing. Other democrats handed over checks of $25,000. Guess they're the poor relations or something.

Isn't transparency great? The ethics rules say that the lawmakers have to file reports and things.

And the reports are public.

And their own party organization gets copies of the reports and says, "Hey, you're sitting on millions of dollars in unspent campaign contributions. Hand it over."

And they thought the IRS was bad.

No no. The DC3 doesn't have these indexed platforms that put a mathematical formular on what you owe, based on what you make.

Nope. The DC3 says we want $50,000 for each one of you and we want you to get out there and raise $200,000 more. Each one of you. For the good of the party.

##

I'M NOT BUYING ALL OF THIS IGNORING ME JUST YET

Quint was almost gleeful when he handed me an article from Science, his journal from AAAS. The article says that men are hard-wired to ignore their wives. Naturally, it was written by a guy -- Robert Roy Britt.

But never mind. The thought interested me. It excited Quint. It just interested me.

Since behavior, basically, is designed to keep a species going, my first thought was how in the world would ignoring wives be good for any species?

You guessed it. Psychologists have a term for this one too. It's called reactance. Reactance is the tendency to do the exact opposite of what a loved one -- or a boss for that matter -- asks you to do.

So it isn't just wives. It could be parents. It could be bosses. It could be anyone who matters.

According to the researchers at Duke University, reactance might just operate outside consciousness. It seems that people who are not as high in reactance -- that is, don't have this tendency to do the opposite of what is requested -- are less defiant when someone wants them to have fun, not just ordering them about.

This definitely warrants more looking into. From a cognitive point of view, we know that all behavior is learned. So learned behavior can be extinguished and replaced with new learning. That's the whole premise of behavior modification.

But I absolutely agree with this notion of having fun. Humans will be interested in pleasing someone who wants them to have fun in the process.

That's not even brain surgery.

Turns out that the researcher -- Tanya Chartrand -- was inspired by her own experiences. Hmmm. Is this anecdotal stuff where she's trying to intellectualize her relationship? Chartrand is a professor of marketing and psychology at Duke.

Take great care, Ms. Chartrand, when you try to shoehorn a theory into a life experience. You need a lot more subjects spread out over a lot of cultures to develop a theory about marital spats and then publish them in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.

This is the kind of stuff my own psychology students used to read and then come into class loaded for bear.

##

PLEASE DON'T TELL ME MY PEANUT BUTTER ISN'T SAFE

I thought salmonella was just for chicken and turkeys and birds that weren't cooked long enough. Or eggs that were served while that delicious yellow stuff was still soupy.

But now it's peanut butter?

How in the world does peanut butter become contaminated with something like chicken disease?

Sure hope they get it figured out. I'm about halfway done with my bottle and I'd hate to have to start rationing now.

So the Food and Drug Administration now says that Peter Pan and Great Value peanut butter are suspect if they have a code beginning with "2111."

What I find truly amazing is that none of the stories have a clue as to what you're supposed to do with the peanut butter if you happen to be one of the unfortunates to have a jar on your shelf. You'd think such a clue would be right up there in the first paragraph, wouldn't you? The problem is all the sites I looked at had the same story that was from Associated Press.

I don't think journalism students took the same course I did when I was in school.

So far there have been nearly 300 cases reported. They seem to be isolated to the states of New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Tennessee and Missouri.

Even if you don't live in those states, check the product code on the lid to see if you have "2111" on your jar. If you do have a jar of suspected peanut butter, I'm guessing that the supermarket you bought it from would know how to get it back to the FDA.

UPDATE: An article by Ruth Mantell at MarketWatch says that consumers should discard the peanut butter but keep the product lid to get a full refund.

##

WHY CAN'T THEY LET ANNA NICOLE REST IN PEACE?

Okay, so she's not out there selling cookies for camp tents and canoes. And no matter what you may think -- or not -- Anna Nicole Smith deserves full burial rights and she deserves for that to happen before her death hits the 12th day mark.

Since she was not married at the time of her death, her next of kin would be her mother. And Anna Nicole's mother wants to bury her daughter.

What is wrong with that?

The paternity suit may well go on -- and on -- and on -- until the cows come home. That requires DNA from Anna Nicole's baby and anybody who wants to get in the daddy roulette.

Wouldn't it be amusing if Anna Nicole has the last laugh from her grave and it's determined that the baby's father is Anna Nicole's late husband, by way of frozen sperm.

And what if the cause of death is something as horrible as septicemia? Anna Nicole is reported to have had a fever of 105 the day before her death. What if she had been incubating sepsis, took antibiotics, got a little better, then went off the antibiotics, then got worse, then more medicine and got better, then worse. What if she went through this process over a period of some time and finally the sepsis became pervasive enough to finally be deadly. 

I have a couple of points for everybody who is living together with someone who is not your spouse. Your romantic partner is not your next of kin. And if something horrible happens to you, you need to know who the next of kin is in the state where you're living.

This whole legal battle has become a gigantic mess. Anna Nicole and her lawyer buddy had a "commitment ceremony." That's not a marriage and it does not make him her next of kin. He apparently does not have a legal claim on her body.

She has a tiny little baby who would be her next of kin except the baby is too young.

So the duty of burying Anna Nicole falls to her mother.

In the meantime, Anna Nicole is being held in the county where she breathed her last.

The paternity suits will continue. But you'd think the scientists could have enough blood and tissue samples by now to do DNA tests forever.

Anna Nicole Smith deserves the full rights of burial. And she deserves it now.

##

WATCH THE POLITICS OF THE MIDDLE EAST CHANGE RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOUR EYES -- FROM 3000 BCE TO 2006 CE

If you are a history buff and want to see how the politics of the middle east has change since way back in Old Testament times, check out this web site:

http://mapsofwar.com/ind/imperial-history.html

Someone has done an astonishing job of putting animated graphics into this map that shows 5,000 years of history.

Prepare to be amazed.

I guess when Adam and Eve lived in the Garden of Eden, there was peace in the land. But no more.

I can still hope that peace will come to people who have lived with millenia of angst.

##

IF CONGRESS PASSES A "NO CONFIDENCE" VOTE FOR THE COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF, CAN A "NO CONFIDENCE" VOTE FOR THE MILITARY BE FAR BEHIND?

For sure, all those great pontificating, governators up there on Capitol Hill would be the first to tell me that I have somehow misunderstood the intent of their non-binding resolution.

They've set aside four days for a marathon debate on our military presence in Iraq.

But since every poll I've seen about the approval rating for congress shows a huge disconnect between Capitol Hill and the people who actually live and breathe out here in the heartland -- and pay taxes, too, I might add.

In fact, I just went to www.pollingreport.com and see that the three polls that have been conducted in February show a disapproval rating of: CBS -- 52%; AP-Ipsos -- 58%; and Gallup -- 55%.

What surprises me is that the numbers are way down from January. The January numbers show only a 40% disapproval.  Guess the honeymoon's over. Gee, what happened?

I'm certain, though, that the analysts will put on their best thinking caps and try to tell us what we should be thinking.

In the meantime, the great debaters on Capitol Hill think they're great big hotshots and are doing something meaningful that the country will somehow latch onto just because they say so.

Not gonna happen.

Rep. Marshal Blackburn (R-Tenn) says, "It sends a message of no confidence and no support to our troops in the field, weakening their morale while encouraging and emboldening the enemy." (source: http://apnews.myway.com)

There are other quotes, pro and con, in this article. Naturally, I picked the one that mirrors my point of view.

I'm pretending that I'm a congressional speaking to the media. Tomorrow I may be more unbiased. Don't know. It depends on the issue. But if this is only the second of four days of house debate, I'll probably get more vehement as time goes by. 

I just hope that congress doesn't cancel the orders for bullets for our guns, or bulletproof vests for our soldiers in the field and sailors on the sea. 

My prayer is that all these military people over there in Iraq come back home and run for congress and win those seats.

Then, just maybe, the American people will feel represented again.

In the meantime, you'll be happy to know that Congress spent 11 hours in debate on whether to pass this non-binding resolution. They spent their longest workday under the dome trying to pass a resolution that is non-binding.

We can only hope they'll do the same when something comes up that has a good chance of actually becoming law. I'd like to know what's sitting on the back burner while congress is working on this non-binding stuff.

##

MODEL AIRPLANE SHOW -- from Alice Stubbe

Do yourselves a favor and check out this You Tube show of a model airplane. Prepare to be amazed.

I love the internet!

This is pretty impressive for a model airplane.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtIL_VjBUGo

Jane

IDIOTS AMONG US -- from Kathy Brandenburg

Number One Idiot of 2006
>I am a medical student currently doing a rotation in
toxicology at the
>poison control center.
>Today, this woman called in very upset because she caught her
little
>daughter eating ants.
>I quickly reassured her that the ants are not harmful and
there would be no
>need to bring her daughter into the hospital. She calmed down
and at the
>end
>of the conversation happened to mention that she gave her
daughter some ant
>poison to eat in order to kill the ants.  I told her that she
better bring
>her daughter into the emergency room right away.
>Here's your sign, lady. Wear it with pride.
>   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
>Number Two Idiot of 2006
>Early this year, some Boeing employees on the airfield decided
to steal a
>life raft from one of the 747s. They were successful in
getting it out of
>the plane and home.  Shortly after they took it for a float on
the river,
>they noticed a  Coast Guard helicopter coming towards them. 
It turned out
>that
>the chopper was homing in on the emergency  locator beacon
that activated
>when the raft was inflated. They are no longer employed at
Boeing.
>Here's your sign, guys. Don't get it wet; the paint might run.
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
>Number Three Idiot of 2006
>A man, wanting to rob a downtown Bank of America, walked into
the Branch
>and
>wrote this. "Put all your muny in this bag."  While standing
in line,
>waiting to give his note to the teller, he began to worry that
someone had
>seen him write the note and might call the police before he
reached the
>teller's window.   So he left the Bank of America and crossed
the street to
>the Wells Fargo Bank. After waiting a few minutes in line, he
handed his
>note to the Wells Fargo teller. She read it and, surmising
from his
>spelling
>errors that he wasn't the brightest light in the harbor, told
him that she
>could not accept his stickup note because it was written on a
Bank of
>America deposit slip and that he would either have to fill out
a Wells
>Fargo
>deposit slip or go back to Bank of America.  Looking somewhat
defeated, the
>man said, "OK" and left.  He was arrested a few minutes later,
as he was
>waiting in line back at Bank of America.
>Don't bother with this guy's sign. He probably couldn't read
it anyway.
>   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
>Number Four Idiot of 2006
>A motorist was unknowingly caught in an automated speed trap
that measured
>his speed using radar and photographed his car. He later
received in the
>mail a ticket for $40 and a photo of his car. Instead of
payment, he sent
>the police department a photograph of $40. Several days later,
he received
>a
>letter from the police that contained another picture, this
time of
>handcuffs.  He immediately mailed in his $40.
>Wise guy........ but you still get a sign
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
>Number Five Idiot of 2006
>A guy walked into a little corner store with a shotgun and
demanded all of
>the cash from the cash drawer.  After the cashier put the cash
in a bag,
>the
>robber saw a bottle of Scotch that he wanted behind the
counter on the
>shelf
>   He told the cashier to put it in the bag as well, but the
cashier
>refused
>and said, "Because I don't believe you are over 21."   The
robber said he
>was, but the clerk still refused to give it to him because she
didn't
>believe him.  At this point, the robber took his driver's
license out of
>his
>wallet and gave it to the clerk.  The clerk looked it over and
agreed that
>the man was in fact over 21 and she put the Scotch in the
bag.  The robber
>then ran from the
>store with his loot.  The cashier promptly called the police
and gave the
>name and address of the robber that he got off the license. 
They arrested
>the robber two hours later.
>This guy definitely needs a sign.
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
>Idiot Number Six of 2006
>A pair of Michigan robbers entered a record shop nervously
waving
>revolvers.
>  The first one shouted, "Nobody move!" When his partner
moved, the 
>startled
>first bandit shot him.
>This guy doesn't even deserve a sign
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
>Idiot Number Seven of 2006
>Arkansas: Seems this guy wanted some beer pretty badly. He
decided that
>he'd
>just throw a cinder block through a liquor store window, grab
some booze,
>and run.  So he lifted the cinder block and heaved it over his
head at the
>window.  The cinder block bounced back knocking him
unconscious. It seems
>the liquor store window was made of Plexi-Glass.  The whole
event was
>caught
>on
>videotape.  Yep, Here's your sign
>
>(Please note that all of the above people are allowed to vote)
>
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>IDIOTS IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD:
>I live in a semi-rural area. We recently had a new neighbor
call the local
>township administrative office to request the removal of the
Deer Crossing
>sign on our road.  The reason: "Too many deer are being hit by
cars out
>here!  I don't think this is a good place for them to be
crossing anymore."
>From Kingman, KS
>________________________________ ______________________
>
>IDIOTS IN FOOD SERVICE:
>My daughter went to a local Taco Bell and ordered a taco. She
asked the
>person behind the counter for "minimal lettuce." He said he
was sorry, but
>they only had iceberg.  He was a Chef?
>Yep...From Kansas City !
>_____________________________________________
>
>IDIOT SIGHTING:
>I was at the airport, checking in at the gate when an airport
employee
>asked
>  "Has anyone put anything in your baggage without your
knowledge?  To
>which
>replied, "If it was without my knowledge, how would I know?" 
He smiled
>knowingly and nodded, "That's why we ask."
>Happened in Birmingham , Ala.
>   _______________________________________________________
>
>IDIOT SIGHTING:
>The stoplight on the corner buzzes when its safe to cross the
street I was
>crossing with an intellectually challenged coworker of mine. 
She asked if
>knew what the buzzer was for.  I explained that it signals
blind people
>when
>the light is red.  Appalled, she responded, "What on earth are
blind people
>doing driving?!"  She was a probation officer in Wichita , KS
>   ___________________________________________________
>
>IDIOT SIGHTING:
>At a good-bye luncheon for an old and dear coworker. She was
leaving the
>company due to "downsizing."  Our manager commented
cheerfully, "This is
>fun
>   We should do this more often."  Not another word was
spoken.  We all
>just
>looked at each other with that deer-in-the-headlights stare.
>This was a bunch at Texas Instruments.
>________________________________________
>
>IDIOT SIGHTING:
>I work with an individual who plugged her power strip back
into itself and
>for the sake of her own life, couldn't understand why her
system would not
>turn on.
>A deputy with the Dallas County Sheriffs office no less.
>   ____________________________________________________
>
>IDIOT SIGHTING:
>When my husband and I arrived at an automobile dealership to
pick up our
>car
>  we were told the keys had been locked in it. We went to the
service
>department and found a mechanic working feverishly to unlock
the drivers
>side door. As watched from the passenger side, I instinctively
tried the
>door handle and discovered that it was unlocked. "Hey," I
announced to the
>technician, "its
>open!"  His reply, "I know - I already got that side."
>This was at the CHEVY dealership in Canton , Mississippi !
>   _______________________________________________________
>
>STAY ALERT!
>They walk among us .. and they REPRODUCE ...!!!
>

LAST WORD FROM RUMSFELD BEFORE HE LEFT OFFICE -- from Alice Stubbe

                         A Lady liberal wrote a lot of letters to   

                the White House complaining about the treatment of a

                captive insurgent (terrorist) being held in

                Guantanamo Bay, including suggested improvements.       

                She received the following reply:

        

                

                        The White House
        
                1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Washington, D.C.20016

        

                     Dear Concerned Citizen,    

                     Thank you for your recent letter soundly

                criticizing our treatment of the Taliban and Al 

                Quada detainees currently being held at Guantanamo      

                Bay, Cuba.
        

                     Our administration takes these matters seriously

                and your opinion was heard loud and clear here in Washington.

        
                     You'll be pleased to learn that, thanks to the

                concerns of citizens like yourself, we are creating

                a new division of the Terrorist Retraining Program,     

                to be called the "Liberals Accept Responsibility for    

                Killers" program, or LARK for short .   

        

                     In accordance with the guidelines of this new

                program, we have decided to place one terrorist 

                under your personal care.

                     Your personal detainee has been selected and

                scheduled for transportation under heavily armed        

                guard to your residence next Monday.
        

                     Ali Mohammed Ahmed bin Mahmud (you can just call   

                him Ahmed) is to be cared for pursuant to the   

                standards you personally demanded in your letter of     

                complaint. It will likely be necessary for you to

                hire some assistant caretakers.
        

                     We will conduct weekly inspections to ensure

                that your standards of care for Ahmed are

                commensurate with those you so strongly recommended

                in your letter.
        

                     Although Ahmed is a sociopath and extremely        

                violent, we hope that your sensitivity to what you      

                described as his "attitudinal problem" will help him    

                overcome these character flaws.
        

                     Perhaps you are correct in describing these        

                problems as mere cultural differences. We understand

                that you plan to offer counseling and home

                schooling.      

                     Your adopted terrorist is extremely proficient     

                in hand-to-hand combat and can extinguish human life    

                with such simple items as a pencil or nail clippers.    

                We advise that you do not ask him to demonstrate

                these skills at your next yoga group. He is also

                expert at making a wide variety of explosive devices

                from common household products, so you may wish to

                keep those items locked up, unless (in your opinion)    

                this might offend him.
        

                     Ahmed will not wish to interact with you or your

                daughters (except sexually), since he views females     

                as a subhuman form of property.  This is a      

                particularly sensitive subject for him and he has       

                been known to show violent tendencies around women      

                who fail to comply with the new dress code that he      

                will recommend as more appropriate attire.       

                     I'm sure you will come to enjoy the anonymity      

                offered by the burka -- over time.      
        

                     Just remember that it is all part of "respecting   

                his culture and his religious beliefs " -- wasn't       

                that how you put it?
        

                     Thanks again for your letter. We truly     

                appreciate it when folks like you keep us informed      

                of the proper way to do our job. You take good care

                of Ahmed - and remember. we'll be watching.

        

                     Good luck! 

                     Cordially, your friend,    

                     Donald Rumsfeld

SENIOR MOMENTS -- from Alice Stubbe

A distraught senior citizen phoned her doctor's office. "Is it true," she wanted to know, "that the medication you prescribed has to be taken for the rest of my life?"
"Yes, I'm afraid so," the doctor told her.
There was a moment of silence before the senior lady replied, "I'm wondering, then, just how serious is my condition because this prescription is marked 'NO REFILLS.'"

-----------------------------------------

An older gentleman was on the operating table awaiting surgery and he insisted that his son, a renowned surgeon, perform the operation. As he was about to get the anesthesia he asked to speak to his son.
"Yes, Dad, what is it?"
"Don't be nervous, son; do your best and just remember, if it doesn't go well, if something happens to me, your mother is going to come and live with you and your wife...."

-----------------------------------------

Aging: Eventually you will reach a point when you stop lying about your age and start bragging about it.

------------------------------------------

The older we get, the fewer things seem worth waiting in line for.

------------------------------------------

Some people try to turn back their odometers. Not me, I want people to know "why" I look this way. I've traveled a long way and some of the roads weren't paved.

----------------------------------------------

I don't know how I got over the hill without getting to the top.

##

THE GLOBAL WARMING TREND REALLY OUGHT TO LAST MORE
THAN A YEAR TO LEGITIMATELY BE CALLED A TREND

There's a bit of irony here. The House hearing on "Warming of the Planet" was cancelled yesterday due to a snow/ice storm in Washington, D.C. This is the hearing that Nancy Pelosi herself appointed herself to lead. It's that important. The self-proclaimed most powerful woman in America doesn't want to leave anything to chance on such an important topic.

Also, in the St. Louis area, a showing of Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth was cancelled because of wintry weather -- like the snow/ice storm that banded the entire state of Illinois like a big pink girdle stretching from eastern Missouri all the way to Ohio.

One of the side benefits of being married to a chemist/physicist is that his continued membership as Emeritus in the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) brings him the journal entitled Science.

In the most recent issue dated February 8, 2007, research findings are published from a team at the Applied Physics Lab (Polar Science Center) at the University of Washington in Seattle and from the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado in Boulder.

Basically, these findings challenge the notion that the shrinkage of two of Greenland's glaciers during 2004 and 2005 are going to bring about a rise in the sea level and as a result the entire Atlantic coastline is going to be flooded. What these non-scientitific threateners fail to tell the public --after getting politicians and celebrities (including media talk show hosts who like to look very scientific) all excited, is that in 2006, the mass-loss of Greenland's glaciers went back to its previous rates.

The researchers say this is likely due to the fast re-equilibration of calving -- that total mass-loss is a fraction of concurrent gravity-derived estimates, pointing to an alternative source of loss and the need for high-resolution observations of outlet dynamics and glacier geometry for sea-level rise predictions.

The research team used satellite-derived elevation and velocity data. They presumed nothing.

Glacial calving isn't new. We know it's been going on since at least 1912 when the Titanic got hit by one of these giant floating boat slashers.  If you want to see an animation of a huge glacier calving, watch what John Hastings captured a www.pbase.com/earthling/image/65268465. These are the Margery calves from Glacier Bay. (Awesomely beautiful sequence. It's also copyrighted.)

What I learned today while writing this blog: In order for ice to be called a glacier, it must be capable of moving. That makes sense. And what makes even more sense is that in order for a glacier to be able to calve, it must connect with water. Big water. Like an ocean or a bay.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the planet in India, an article written by Anil Anand from New Delhi, dated February 11, 2007, says there are only a dozen scientists working on some 9,575 glaciers in India.

These scientists call to task what they call the alarmist theories that say the Himalayan glaciers are shrinking due to global warming. One glaciologist -- V. K. Raina, says that to date, there has been research on a mere 50 of these glaciers in the Himalayas. He further adds that after nearly 200 years of data gathering, there has been no evidence that anything abnormal has occurred in any of these glaciers.

Raina and other scientists who are quoted in the article at www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1925164,0008.htm have some comparisons to the Himalayan versus the Alps versus the Alaskan glaciers. But the scientists don't make much money so there's not a lot of work being carried out in the Himalayas.

Maybe, and this is just a thought, it would be a convenient time to pump some good old greenbacks into some very real science. For instance, Raina says that when he was on an expedition in the Antarctic, he was disturbed to learn that the cook made more money than he did.

##

HERE'S AN OXYMORON: HOUSE ETHICS COMMITTEE

It's been less than an hour since the time I figured I'd write about the shenanigans (continuing) going on over at the Capitol Building.

And then, a big yellow-backgrounded news alert jumped off the page at me on CNN.com. It said, "A former third-ranking official in the CIA, Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, is expected to be indicted in San Diego today in an ongoing investigation into public corruption and defense contracts, according to two sources familiar with the case."

Heads are gonna roll!

The oversight committees are supposed to be working hard.

But are they really? Another headline says "Dems breaking promise; working short weeks."

Then there was an article in The Hill about how the lobbyists in Washington are already looking ahead. Way ahead. In an article today by Jim Snyder, he says the lobbyists are already working to "frame future floor debates in oversight committees."

Ahh. It's the lobbyists who are framing floor debates. I should have guessed.

All this time, I thought it was the elected officials. But then, who else would do it.

The elected officials are working short weeks, taking off to run for office and run for money.

And running from fights with each other.

This is America. No wonder foreigners think we're silly. We can't even control the people we elect to work for us!

##

HERE'S WHERE THE REAL PEACE PRIZE SHOULD GO

Remember the name: Christopher Hill.

He's the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State and he's been in Beijing doing what he can to broker peace with the North Koreans.

Hill, representing the United States, is joined by other envoys from China, Japan, South Korean and North Korea and Russia.

Tensions are high. All the powers that are represented want North Korea to knock it off and dismantle its manufacture of nuclear warheads (like it promised).

North Korea says it just might not do that unless it gets a whole bunch of oil. Like 2 million tons of heavy fuel oil every year, according to Jae-Soon Chang, who filed the story with Associated Press. The North Koreans also say they will need 2 million kilowatts of electricity just to begin the first stages of denuclearization.

If North Korea gets everything it's demanding, it says it will shut down the 5-megawatt reactor at Yongbyon, and other nuclear facilities, then let inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency come back in.

It appears that North Korea's bragging rights to being the ultra-powerful sasquatch in the Orient was recently eclipsed by China's shooting one of our old satellites out of space.

The North Koreans probably felt a spiny tingle of "oops" go all the way up to the collarbone.

Personally, I don't think the North Koreans want China to get all that upset with them. And then, there's the new boss over at the UN who just happens to be from South Korea.

Politically, North Korea needs to work on polishing its political savvy.

Then there's the United States. If North Korea wants us to share some of our $13 trillion economy -- like in new orders for goods they're making over there, then they ought to listen up.

Just tear the things down. You built them, you sink 'em. The smart thing would be to proceed to commence to begin.
 
##

YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK

The Senate is going to do some voting on six nominees' names presented today. They're mostly judges who will be heading up federal district courts around the country. There's also one person who needs to be appointed to the Department of the Interior. 

Yesterday -- Monday, 2/12 --they convened at 1 pm and quit work at 7:22 pm. Didn't vote on anything. But there apparently is some ongoing work on the joint resolution that funds the country -- like the budget.

Today, they convened at 10 am. The junior senator from Tennessee is selected to read George Washington's Farewell Address on February 26, 2007. All eyes and ears will be on this speech, I'm sure.

In the meantime, there's a motion to close debate (cloture) on the budget resolution. They have until 2:15 to say whatever they're going to say about the budget and other matters. Then they apparently take a little mini-break because at 2:30 today they will get ready to begin to vote to close debate.

Then they'll probably adjourn and go off to do something else.

They do have some non-legislative time boxed in from February 19 - 23. Guess that's when we'll see all the presidential wanabees running around New Hampshire and Iowa.

After all, we have to get in a hurry. The election is about 19 months away.

They have to get out there and raise money. Lotsa money. And connect with the voters and taxpayers. And shake a lot of hands. And make at least a couple more trips to Iraq.

Maybe to back to Peru and see if they missed anything on the first trip to examine the security systems of the ancient Incans.

Then back to Washington, D.C. by way of Caifornia to recuperate from jetlag.

Speaking of California, did you know that is California were a country, it would be the 5th richest in the world? Just in case you ever wondered why all the politicos go to California during their campaigns.

And the population of California is 31,000,000 people.

As for me, I have decided that I am not going to vote for anybody who is campaigning while holding an active office. I think all elected persons need to realize that a full-time job in the United States is 2,000 hours a year.

That does not include flying off on junkets to places all around the world at taxpayers expense. Or going to cocktail parties or dinner parties, for Pete's sake. It certainly does not include going on ski trips with your favorite lobbyists. I personally do not consider it a "business discussion" when you are talking about how to rip off the taxpayers in your district. Just being there with lobbyists is ripping off taxpayers!

And if it just so happens that you somehow wrested the "power" to box out four or five days on the calendar so you can go off and do other things besides being in the halls of congress like you were elected to do (so you could govern), then I'm not going to vote for you.

You are AWOL. And you need to get back to the job of running this country.

It's a very big country and it's super complicated. You shouldn't think you can do it on a part-time basis.

##

EDDIE MURPHY STILL BOX OFFICE GOLD!

Is it because he plays a great big mama as an added character? Or is it because he's just downright funny? My guess is that it's both.

Who knows. What is for certain is that he can draw the audience into his zany comedies. Talk about Box Office Mojo!

His newest movie, Norbit, just finished its debut weekend with a total of $33,740,000. Guess we just like to laugh. Laughing is good for us.

Norbit bested the second spot, Hannibal Rising, by $20 million. Hannibal was only good for $13,350,000.

The Messengers also opened this weekend, but it came in 4th place.

Third place went to Because I Said So which is playing in its second week.

Night at the Museum slipped to 5th place, but what a run it's having. This movie has grossed $232,146,000 so far.

##

source: www.boxofficemojo.com

PERSPECTIVE TAKING IS A POWERFUL TOOL

Whether you are talking with your partner about any number of topics, or engaging in a debate about other issues, the ability to see another person's perspective is an extraordinarily powerful cognitive tool.

Perspective taking does not mean you have to agree or even subscribe to another person's point of view.

It means that you are able to allow someone else to think differently and hold a point of view that's different from your own.
 
I am putting my moment of zen into this blog because I want it to be archived just in case I want to resurrect it later.

I am reading a book called Left to Tell. It's written by a Rwandan lady named Immaculee Ilibagiza. In the book, Ilibagiza recounts the horror of her experiences in the 1994 genocide of her homeland. Nearly one million Tutsis were killed by the Hutus.

There was such hatred fomented toward the Tutsis that it finally erupted into a machete-wielding bunch of idiots who thought it was their right to exterminate an entire people.

It's a theme that gets played out all too often. Even in the modern day. All around the globe. And right here in America, there is a growing lack of tolerance for differing points of view.

We used to pride ourselves in engaging in debate about a wide variety of issues. Now we're polarized. It has become the Democrats versus the Republicans. It has become the Seculars versus the Evangelicals. It's the left verus the right.

It doesn't seem like we can have a differing point of view anymore.

One columnist in the Boston Globe actually says that people who do not support the premise of global warming also deny the holocaust. Excuse me, but that's a huge leap. And it happens not to be true. But then, she's a columnist. She's not supposed to propose truth. It's just a column in a big city newspaper.

Can we say that global warming is a possibility and disagree as to its cause? I readily admit that I am not a scientist and I do not know what the cause is. But then, neither do a lot of other people who have set themselves up as experts.

I tend to be more influenced by neutral scientists than politicians and celebrities when it comes to problems that are scientific in nature -- like climate for instance.

But to close off debate and say that I don't believe in the holocaust sounds too much like a Hutu trying to correct a Tutsi's thinking. Next thing you know, I won't be allowed to have an opinion unless it matches theirs.

Once that leap is made, can hatred be far behind?

##

OBAMA SAYS HE WANTS TO BE THE NEXT PRESIDENT

There were about 15,000 to 17,000 people who stood out in front of the Old State Capitol and temperatures that hovered between zero and ten degrees. They came to listen to boma boma O'Bama tell them that he wants them to be a part of a new government here in the good old USofA.

O'Bama, who's 45 years old, talked for 20 minutes and actually let these people stand out there in the frigid temperatures because he wanted to launch his thousand ships where Abraham Lincoln once spoke instead of indoors where it would have been a lot more comfortable for them in any venue.

Well, so okay. He's been running around looking pretty presidential for months now.

Now it's official.

At least it's a Saturday. He didn't pick a workday when he's supposed to be in Washington.

I admit that it bothers me when all these presidential campaign senators are running around the country when they're AWOL from the senate floor.

They ran their senatorial campaigns promising to represent people in their senatorial districts, didn't they? Doesn't that include their actual presence in the senate?

###

IRANIANS SEND THE NUCLEAR NEGOTIATOR TO TALKS IN GERMANY

According to Reuters this morning, his name is Ali Larijani and he's going to Munich to try and resolve disputes with the West about Iran's much touted nuclear program.

Part of a compromise might have been greatly encouraged by trade incentives from Western powers -- like Great Britain and the U.S.

There are some European nations that are weighing the thought that they might just let the Iranians go ahead and do some nuclear research and run the centrifuges but not feed the uranium into the centrifuges. That would give the Iranians the fuel they say they need but not anything more suspiciously warlike, like nuclear weapons.

Well, that may be okay for the Iranians. But the U.S. and Great Britain are saying, the Iranians are going to learn a lot and pick up some nuclear skills along the way just by vacuum-testing the centrifuges.

Next thing you know, they'll be skilled enough to make a bomb.

The politics in Iran seem to be changing. The general public in Iran has become growingly unhappy with Captain Marmalade's radically threatening tone to blow up the United States and Israel.

The Iranians have now allowed the UN to install surveillance cameras at the nuclear plant at Natanz. The presence of the cameras has been confirmed by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

So let's run the Doomsday Clock back about ten minutes until further notice.

###

thank you Alice Stubbe

TOP 8 MORONS OF 2006

 1. WILL THE REAL DUMMY PLEASE STAND UP? AT&T fired President John Walter after nine months, saying he lacked intellectual leadership. He received a $26 million severance package. Perhaps it's not Walter who's lacking intelligence. 

 2. WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM OUR FRIENDS: Police in Oakland , CA spent two hours attempting to subdue a gunman who had barricaded himself inside his home. After firing ten tear gas canisters, officers discovered that the man was standing beside them in the police line, shouting, "Please come out and give yourself up." 

 3. WHAT WAS PLAN B??? An Illinois man, pretending to have a gun, kidnapped a motorist and forced him to drive to two different automated teller machines, wherein the kidnapper proceeded to withdraw money from his own bank accounts.

 4. THE GETAWAY!   A man walked into a Topeka , Kansas Kwik Stop and asked for all the money in the cash drawer. Apparently, the take was too small, so he tied up the store clerk and worked the counter himself for three hours until police showed up and grabbed him. 

 5. DID I SAY THAT???   Police in Los Angeles had good luck with a robbery suspect who just couldn't control himself during a lineup. When detectives asked each man in the lineup to repeat the words: "Give me all your money or I'll shoot", the man shouted, "that's not what I said!" . 

 6. ARE WE COMMUNICATING???   A man spoke frantically into the phone: "My wife is pregnant and her contractions are only two minutes apart".  "Is this her first child?" the doctor asked. "No!" the man shouted, "This is her husband!" 

 7. NOT THE SHARPEST TOOL IN THE SHED! In Modesto , CA , Steven Richard King was arrested for trying to hold up a Bank of America branch without a weapon.  King used a thumb and a finger to simulate a gun.  Unfortunately, he failed to keep his hand in his pocket. (hellooooooo)!

 8. THE GRAND FINALE!!! Last summer, down on Lake Isabella, located in the high desert, an hour east of Bakersfield, CA, some folks, new to boating, were having a problem.  No matter how hard they tried, they couldn't get their brand new 22 foot boat, going.  It was very sluggish in almost every maneuver, no matter how much power they applied.  After about an hour of trying to make it go, they putted into a nearby marina, thinking someone there may be able to tell them what was wrong.  A thorough topside check revealed everything in perfect working condition.  The engine ran fine, the out-drive went up and down, and the propeller was the correct size and pitch.  So, one of the marina guys jumped in the water to check underneath.  He came up choking on water, he was laughing so hard.
NOW REMEMBER...THIS IS TRUE.
Under the boat, still strapped securely in place, was the trailer!

###

IT'S JUST REALLY HARD TO FEEL SORRY FOR THE POLITICIANS

Campaign reform and lobbyists' gifts -- and the poor politicians who are just going to have to start paying for their own goodies.

The taxpayers already give these lawmakers $162,500 a year. So what makes them think they're also entitled to freebies from lobbyists?

In an article written by Jim Snyder in The Hill on February 8, 2007, Rep. Charles Gonzalez, a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, says his campaign committee has an executive suite reserved (at a cost of $3,500) so that he can watch his favorite team, the San Antonio Spurs.

Ticket prices start at $1,500 for individual lobbyists who get to sit in his suite and watch the game with him. The only requirement, says Gonzales, is that the lobbyists contribute to his reelection campaign. (And cheer for the Spurs.)

So there would have been -- under the old rules -- about 20 to 30 lobbyists who would have watched the game with him -- and paid the $1,500 apiece. That's between $30,000 and $45,000 for just one game. That's a healthy chunk of change coming back to the lawmaker.

Gee, do you suppose that the lobbyists would have made a contribution to the campaign committee that would have sort of washed the cost of the suite?

And that's just one congressman and one game.

There are a lot of good government groups out there who are trying diligently to tear these ties between lobbyists and congress apart.

It's about time that lawmakers start paying for their entertainment out of their own pockets, don't you think?

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RELIGION OUGHT TO BE OFF LIMITS

I will admit that I don't scratch the surface of all the blogs out there -- and there are supposedly some 37 million of them.

So I missed the big mess that's brewing about John Edwards and the Catholic League and a couple of bloggers. Supposedly the bloggers have been fired for making some rather intolerant comments about Catholics.

Frankly, I don't care who said what to whom.

What I do care about though is a growing intolerance of how people practice their faith. It's no secret that Catholics do things differently than Baptists or other fundamental religions. By the same token, Muslims practice their faith much differently than people of Jewish faith do.

Who's correct? Who decides?

Apparently intolerant people believe that they have the right to point out the errors or limitations of every religious experience that doesn't mirror their own.

I do believe that people have the right to freedom of expression. I don't believe that freedom of speech overrides people's right to practice their faith and take the path to God that their religion offers them.

As a nation, where did we lose our tolerance for freedom of religion?

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BORAT TWO ON THE DRAWING BOARD

In case you missed your opportunity to sue Mr. Cohen, the originator of the outrageously funny Borat, you may get a chance after all.

Rupert Murdoch has signed Cohen for a sequel to Borat -- the gist of which has not been determined yet. He won't start filming the sequel until he completes another movie he's working on presently -- about Bruno, an Austrian fashion designer. Bruno is one of Cohen's popular characters.

Cohen reminds me of Red Skelton who also had a whole stable filled with funny characters.

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ANNA NICOLE SMITH DIES IN FLORIDA

It's been confirmed by Fox News, CNN and the Drudge Report that Anna Nicole Smith was found unresponsive in her hotel room. She was rushed to a nearby hospital where she was pronounced dead. She was 39 years old.

Now get ready for the biographies and talking heads touting her greatness.

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AIR FORCE THREE JUST BECAME A COMMUTER JET

Sorry, Aunt Nancy. But if you want a military jet to cart you back and forth just like Dennis Hastert had when he was the Speaker of the House, then you get to use a jet that was the same size.

There will be none of this 4-star restaurant quality food and no open bar with vintage wine. In fact, there won't even be a steward on board.

Watch for the letter in your mailbox from the Department of Defense. Your military plane will be about the size of a commuter class puddle jumper.

I flew in a plane about that size once. It went from Denver, Colorado, to Cheyenne, Wyoming. All our kids got sick from the turbulence. And we were only at 5,000 feet.

Maybe your plane will go higher than. It is, after all, a real jet. Ours was a turbo-prop. They have to fly closer to the edge of the air.

Oh, and my goodness gracious. Your plane will also have to allow time to stop for refueling between Maybeville and the Land of Princesses in California.

Your plane will not be big enough to board all your staff, your family (including cousins), your pets, and all the hangers-on that would be attracted to the most powerful woman in America.

It seems that Aunt Nancy is not all that keen about this new development. She claims that the President wants to make sure that she has all the security she needs.

Well, if that's the case, you'd be better off flying commercial. Aren't they the safest planes on the planet now? At least, all you guys out there in Maybeville keep telling the flying public that our planes are safer than they've ever been.

Are they? Or aren't they?

I know I can't bring my embroidery on planes anymore. Needles are deadly. (But not as deadly as a ball point pen which could be used to poke somebody's eye out.) And scissors are deadly too.

I have news for you. Go to any maximum security prison and you'll be amazed at what weapons can be made out of simple plastic knives and forks.

I could compromise and use finger nail clippers to clip my embroidery threads with, but I don't know if they're allowed anymore. Sometimes they are. Sometimes they aren't. So Grandma Jane here just sits and watches the passengers. Quint and I play a game trying to figure out who the Sky Marshals are. On our last flight, we counted upwards of 50 marshals.

I'm not sure we have the criteria streamlined just yet.

But I do feel safer just knowing there are that many marshals on board.

The Pentagon did make one really big concession to Her Speakerness. She can have a bigger plane at her disposal. One that can fly across the country without refueling.

That is, providing there are any such planes that happen to be parked at Andrews Air Force Base in the 89th Airlift Wing at the point in time that she feels she needs the ultra security and doesn't want to fly with the flying public.

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SO WAS THIS JUST A GAME OF "MADE YOU LOOK?"

After all that nonsense.

I just can't believe that now Wong Jong Shong, Jr. of North Korea says he's going to start dismantling his country's nukes.

So what was the deciding factor? Could it be that his big missile turned out to be a dud? That was the one he was trying to train to become a nuke carrier.

Or does he miss the caviar. big juicy lobsters and imported silks and other enrichments that have nothing to do with uranium. He can't get those anymore. I think I vaguely remember something about the UN saying the North Koreans were being naughty and they are in a time out imposed by world leaders who make up the UN Security Council.

I admit I don't know all the details. I can't do everything for you and my brain is stuffed to overfill right now anyway.

But it's a good start. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill is over there right now. He probably told Junior, "Don't make me send Condi Rice back over here. You promised you wouldn't upset her anymore."

Christopher Hill -- I'm adding him to my list of nominees I'll be sending to Oslo for the Nobel Peace Prize. Don't worry about the technicalities of the nominations being closed at this point. This is way too important to ignore.

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VICTIMHOOD -- PSYCHOLOGICAL ABUSE -- VERBAL ABUSE -- PHYSICAL ABUSE -- SEXUAL ABUSE -- IT'S ALL DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

People who know me -- patients who comes to see me -- everyone who knows me in one way or another knows that I completed my masters practicum at a shelter for battered women.

I was taken aback by a number of the women who identified themselves as victims of domestic violence only if they had been physically or sexually abused.

Somewhere in their definitions, they kind of forgot that psychological and verbal abuse are also incorporated in the domestic violence act here in Illinois -- and in most other states as well.

True, police departments have their hands full just making sure people are physically safe -- that spouses aren't going to be able to bring harm to them or worse, try to kill them.

But there are a growing number of police departments that will respond to verbal abuse -- especially if a partner becomes threatening. If you threaten to hit your wife, you're going to sit somewhere for a while until you cool off. It will probably be a jail cell.

It's not a defense to tell the judge, "My wife threatens me too. All the time."

And if that's true, then you need to make a call. Because, believe it or not, men are also victims of domestic violence. Making threats and counter-threats to each other is not a good way to live in a relationship. It does not foster joy and peace with a couple.

Don't do it like that.

Abusers keep you in your victim role by making you feel like you're their hero.

Read that one again.

Hero, you say. How does he make me feel like I'm his hero?

Easy -- when he says things like, "I don't know what I'd ever do without you. Please don't leave me. Life wouldn't be worth living without you."

Sound like he just made you his hero? Sure. He just gave you the power to make his life worth living. What a woman you are. You're his hero!

And you're not getting off the hook so easy either. Women do the same thing to men. They make heroes out of the man in their lives. Maybe by parroting those same exact words back to your ever-lovin'.

Better yet, each and every day that you're married, tell each other two things:

First, of course, if that you love each other.

Second, and this is just as powerful as the first, tell each other that you're glad you're married to each other.

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THE SOUND BYTE THAT KEEPS ON GOING ... AND GOING ... AND GOING

Like the little pink bunny, this is a sound byte that will keep repeating until election day -- November 2008.

In a blog posting on The Hill this morning, Rep. Ron Kind (D-Wisconsin) says (again) the president's budget request "...protects nearly $3 trillion in tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans."

In a quest to find out who these wealthy Americans are, I set out to find out about how much they paid -- or didn't pay -- in income taxes.

Lo and behold, the truth is right out there in plain old black and white on www.newsmax.com . And I didn't even have to wade through political subterfuge and rhetoric to get the numbers straight.

So here's what I found: According to Congress' Joint Economic Committee, the richer half of the American population pays nearly 97% of all the income taxes paid in the United States.

Amazing! Their own committee gives them real data that seems to get lost in their political talking points.

So what do you say about that, Mr. Kind?

Here's another interesting little tidbit: According to Investor's Business Daily (IBD), when you get way up to the tippy top of the richest of the rich people, like the top 1%, they pay 34% of the income taxes in this country.

If we put the richest -- those in the top 5% -- and that would include the tippy toppers -- then the top 5% pay a whopping 54% of all personal income taxes coming in to the federal treasury.

Now take a look at the lower end of the scale. 

That would include some 14 million lower-income Americans who have actually been taken out of the income tax equation since 2000. Fortunately for them, earned income tax credits and child tax credits give them a big tax advantage -- again, according to NewsMax.

Even so, according to the Tax Foundation, Americans' tax burdens keep going up when you factor in property taxes and all the other stuff we get taxed on -- like everything. 

If you put all our taxes into a big green tax basket, we pay 31.6% of our gross income. 

I can assure you that Quint and I are definitely not in the top 5% of the country's wage earners. I'm not even sure if we're in the top 50%. But I can tell you this -- if the really rich are paying all those taxes, it wouldn't be a good idea to add a couple of percentage points to what they're already paying.

They just might get irritated and move somewhere else -- they're rich enough to buy islands somewhere -- or a villa in the south of France or Italy.

We need to keep them as friends, not run 'em off where they can live a lot cheaper.

Just beware between now and election day that when you hear politicians talking about all the tax breaks that rich people are getting, it's the rich people who are paying 97% of the federal income taxes.

Now, what I'd like to know is how much money the richy richies are making.

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AUNT NANCY WANTS TO DO WHAT?!!

Once upon a time, there was a very persistent lady from San Francisco. She stuck by her guns and got herself elected to the U.S. Congress.

And then, miracle of miracles, she became Speaker of the House.

Well, maybe not miracles. She probably thought that was what all women did.

Anyway, there she is. Sitting up there with her huge gavel that took at least a half a tree down. And that was before that twig thing on the end of the gavel that they had to use for the handle.

And then, Her Speakerness heard a rumor that because the Speaker of the House is in succession to the throne in the White House, that first rate steward-adorned military jets were available to fly her hither and thither. Back and forth to her wonderful kingdom in the west.

Incidentally, these stewards serve pretty good chow. They also stock a first class bar which they tally-ho from. Hmmm. I did not know that alcoholic beverages could be served on federal property when official business is being conducted. Can that possibly be correct.

No -- I certainly must have a misunderstanding somewhere here. I mean, these are my tax dollars being used for all this tally-ho stuff.

But then Aunt Nancy reckoned that her predecessor had used military jets when he went back to Illinois on official business.

But Aunt Nancy, Mr. Hastert didn't want a jet big enough for himself and his staff and relatives and other members of his delegation. He just wanted one little jet to fly in just for himself.

But then, I don't really know for sure how many people were on Hastert's flight manifest. Nor do I know for sure how many people fly in Aunt Nancy's Air Force Three.

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AMERICA'S MAYOR THROWS HIS HAT IN THE RING

It's now official -- Rudy Giuliani announced his candidacy for president on the Republican side of the equation.

Remember him? He used to be the mayor of New York City when the Dirty Nineteen actually had the untimigated gall to drop a couple of our buildings in the middle of Manhattan.

Boy, did Alquadaville get a big surprise over there in the Land of the Great Caves of the Taliban.

Giuliani is viewed by most as a moderate.

Does that mean we can talk to him? McCain says he's a moderate too. Romney says "me too" also.

Then there's Nader. He'll pull a lot of the liberal and ultra-liberal votes from the Democrats -- and there's a whole field of them.

I wouldn't think they'd be too happy if Ralph throws his hat in the ring. I mean, there aren't that many liberal votes to go around, are there?

And since this is truly America, no sooner had Giuliani's news hit the streets than Fox News came out with a poll.

Sure enough, they found 900 or so people who would talk to them about whether they liked Rudy better than McCain. It's Rudy -- 34%; McCain -- 22%. And Newt Gingrich, who isn't even a candidate yet, got 15%.

The other Republican candidates -- Mitt Romney, San Brownback, and Mike Huckabee -- got the leftovers. None of those three got into the double digits.

Sounds like the temperatures in Chicago today.

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SINCE THEY'RE HANDING OUT NOBEL PEACE PRIZES FOR
GLOBAL WARMING MOVIE MAKERS, I NOMINATE BOB

And especially since Bob is an engineer. He sent an e-mail that says:

"An item that our scientific celebs do not realize is that the wood in their multimillion dollar estates comes from ... TREES. Maybe they don't realize it, but trees are a beautifully designed carbon dioxide (CO2) filtration device that removes said chemical from the air and replaces it with Oxygen (O2). Cutting down trees for their homes (you should search the web for  picture of John Edwards' house to see how much area was cleared to put up his ego trip) also increases the albedo of the surrounding area. Our scientific celebs probably think this albedo goes on their tofu. Albedo is the fraction of light reflected by a body or a surface. Trees, grasses and other light colored materials reflect sunlight rather than absorb, resulting in reduced surface temperatures. (That is why you see people wearing white robes, etc. in the middle east and other hot climates.) Removing trees and natural shrubbery decreases the albedo which causes the concrete, asphalt, building brick, etc. to absorb the heat, thereby raising the local temperature. This also is the reason for the phenomenon known as the "Urban Heat Island Effect" in which large urban areas actually record higher temperatures than the surrounding countryside -- sound familiar? (For more information regarding this phenomenon read Urban Climatology and Air Quality by Dr. James Arnold.)"

Thank you, Bob.

Part of my soapbox includes any variance that starts with "in the next 50 to 100 years." That's a 100% variable right there. If this kind of variance is the best they can offer, it's where I get off their train.

I think there are enough legitimate, big-brained people out there who know what they're talking about -- such as yourself -- so my opinion on global warming would probably look like a cartoon version of The Ice Man Melteth -- however, I do believe that the Holy Grail of global warming has got to have something to do with solar storms -- somehow -- and sunspot activity.

Maybe that coupled with burning up the rain forests -- that is, thousands and thousands of acres -- not just a little bit to build a few huts.

Thanks for your comments. I haven't heard the term albedo since physics class. (a long, long time ago)

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MAYBE WHAT CONGRESS REALLY NEEDS IS A NEW CLOCK

The House will convene at 2:00 p.m.

The Senate will also convene at 2:00 and will conduct "morning business" -- it says on www.senate.gov -- the official web site of the U.S. Senate.

Someone should tell these people -- not that it would do any good -- that the workday begins on Monday mornings for the rest of us at around 8ish. Maybe 9 is you're lucky.

Here's an idea -- next Monday call your boss and say you're not coming in until 2:00 pm. See what happens.

Do you think you'd get a response like, "Oh, that's okay. Lawmakers don't start work either until 2ish. Just come on in when you feel like it."

Or how about just taking the day off because you're running for president. The Senators get a hefty salary of some $162,500 to show up and do their job. So how come the presidential candidates are AWOL? Aren't they supposed to be in Washington, D.C. -- not out on the campaign trail?

Why don't they take a leave of absence if they're going to campaign. If seems to me that if you represent a state like, say Kansas, you've got no business being in Boise, Idaho, attending some kind of "presidential stump meeting" for a get-out-the-vote-for-me rally.

Besides, it's starting to look like Ralph Nader may give it another run in 2008.

Pretty soon we're gonna have about as many candidates as we have voters.

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WEEKEND BOX OFFICE

The Messenger grossed $14,500,000 and came in #1 against the Super Bowl contenders.

#2 spot goes to Because I Said So, grossing $13,022,000.

#3 is Epic Movie at $8,225,000

#4 is Night at the Museum with $6,750,000

and #5 is Smokin' Aces with $6,324,000.

For a complete list of the top 33 movies, go to www.boxofficemojo.com

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DON'T BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU'VE EVER HEARD ABOUT CATHARSIS!

Freud did not get everything right.

Psychologists have departed company with Freudian theory for many reasons through the years. Some things remain as valid; others not.

One theory that people insist on hanging onto is this thing called catharsis. Variously, it's called venting.

People think they need to vent. They claim that it gives them cathartic relief.

If catharsis worked, my friends, people wouldn't have to keep doing it over and over and over for the same reason for their upset.

Problem is, people who engage in catharsis, leave a wide debris field of misery and broken hearts.

Better yet to subscribe to Darwin's point of view. Darwin said that when you express anger, you multiply it.

So venting is expressing anger. The hoped-for cathartic relief doesn't come to the ventors because the anger gets multiplied.

Better yet, look at anger as a big billboard sign that exists as a way of disguising pain. Sometimes it's ego pain if the anger is expressed when someone doesn't get his or her way.

Or anger flares when reaching a goal is frustrated.

But catharis? Nope. If you do it this week, you'll have to do it again.

Mainly because it does work.

My grandma said it right: "Bite your tongue."

She was classier than I am. I say, "Don't vomit your verbal venom all over people you care about -- or even strangers you don't even know."

There you have it. I think that takes care of just about everybody in the universe.

Jesus said it best: Treat other people the same way that you want them to treat you.

The End.

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MINIMUM WAGE BILL CLEARS THE SENATE (FINALLY)

Okay -- so Congress didn't manage to sneak in a raise for themselves. With the bipartisan bickering at the end of the 109th Congress and before the 110th Congress was sworn in, somehow the campaign promise of reaching across the aisle didn't quite hold. They couldn't even agree on giving each other raises.

Members of Congress -- Senate and House members alike -- are just gonna have to limp along on a meager $165,200 a year.

For shame. For shame.

And they were hung up on giving the poorest of the poor employees in this country a minimum pay hike -- the first in many many many years. This wage hike will boost the federal minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25. Big deal. It's going to take two years to get to the top of the raise part.

At the $5.15 rate, and working a full time 40 hours a week, comes to $10,712 a year. That's $5,000 below the poverty level for a family of three.

Now here's the deal -- and it may prove to be a deal breaker -- the Senate added in $8.3 billion in small business tax cuts. The Senate's thinking, apparently, is that the small businesses are going to need some kind of revenue help if they're going to be able to afford to pay workers more money.

President Bush is standing at the ready, a pen full of ink and rarin' to sign the bill into law.

And why not? Himself Mr. Bush gets a cool $400,000 in salary, plus a $50,000 expense account, plus free room and board, and free transportation to anywhere on Earth that he wants to go. And when he leaves office, he gets a cool pension of $151,800, plus up to $150,000 to maintain his former-president-office and staff. And Mrs. Bush gets $20,000 in pension money as a former First Lady.

Hillary doesn't get a first lady pension because she gets a lot more as a senator.

Incidentally, lawmakers do okay with their own little pension. It's much better than Social Security that the rest of us have to put up with, since they belong to the Federal Employees' Retirement Systerm (FERS). Their average pension is $3,909 a month.

Members of Congress are not eligible for a pension until they reach the age of 50, but only if they've finished 20 years of service. Members are eligible at any age after they finish 25 years of service or after they reach the age of 62. But in any event, Members of Congress have to serve at least 5 years to even receive a pension.

So forget about all those wild-eyed rumors that Members of Congress get 75% of their salary as pension.

But then, at some point, they have all this money that they shift over to PACs -- how do they do that?

That sounds like it might be just next door to "out there" if you know what I mean. I personally am of the opinion that if they don't use all the money that they come begging for when they're running for office, they ought to give it back to the donors. It wasn't exactly given to them to put into a savings account.

Even when the poorest employees reach the very tippy top of the new improved pay rate, it's only $14,500. That's only 8.7% of what the Congresspersons get.

That still seems like it's way out of kilter to my way of thinking.

Source: http://usgovinfo.about.com

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WHAT IN THE WORLD DOES A $6 MILLION HOUSE LOOK LIKE?

John Edwards – remember him?

He was the vice presidential nominee on John Kerry’s ticket in 2004. He likens himself to be the champion of the poor. Senator Joe "Bloviator" Biden says Edwards doesn’t know what he’s talking about. But I think The Bloviator was talking about his accusation that Edwards was "pushing a recipe for Armageddon in the Middle East" in a recent interview with Jason Horowitz of the New York Observer.

In a rather colorful description, Biden likened Edwards opinions to "fluffernutter." I’m not sure what that is but since it rhymes with peanut butter, it will probably be okay.

Why, even on the day he announced his candidacy for 2008, he was down yonder in New Orleans, decked out in blue jean working duds digging around in somebody’s backyard.

John Edwards wants you to vote for him because he wants to build an America that lives up to its promise – one where we can all share in prosperity at home... (www.johnedwards.com)

I’d especially like to share in that since he just sold his poor little mansion in Georgetown for $5.2 million. I could sure happily share with Edwards in that piece of Americana prosperity.

So what do you get for $5.2 million?

First of all, it’s described as a grand old 18^th century house – has six bedrooms, and is a Federal-style house that once was owned by socialite Polly Fritchey. Supposedly the Edwards have done some substantial renovations and that made the house worth a lot more than the measly $3.8 million they paid for it in 2002.

It’s four stories tall, for goodness sake! It kind of has a little winding stairway or front steps. But the alley looks kind of narrow. Does it have a garage back there behind the big house? Just wondering. It sort of looks like there’s only street parking, but I guess that’s okay since Georgetown isn’t exactly a high crime district. As long as the streets are wide enough for the limos in my newly shared prosperity in John Edwards’ America.

I can just hear the echoes of glasses clinking in the halls, with muted laughter drifting up the grand staircase, and maids going hither and thither with trays of party chow. Yum Yum!

That’s prosperity. And he says he wants to share it with all of us Americans right here at home!

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